High-Speed Rail Corridor: The Indian Assessment

Abstract

The Indian High-Speed dream is 85 years old. The dream was first fulfilled by Germany in 1933 after the successful run of the flying Hamburg at 160kmph (99 mph) between Berlin and Hamburg. The speed barrier further broke with the introduction of the Shinkansen Bullet Train between Tokyo and Osaka in 1964 at a Maximum Operating Speed of 320 kmph (198 mph). India made its first attempt to join the consortium of High-Speed Railway System in 1969 with the inauguration of Rajdhani Express between Howrah and New Delhi. Fast forwarding to the contemporary economy, India has signed an MoU with Japan for Technology Transfer of High-Speed Railways. The estimated cost of the project is expected to be approximately 90, 000 crores. The anticipated cost of track laying is between 100–200 crores per kilometre in comparison to the conventional track construction which costs 3–10 crores a kilometre and each trainset would cost `120 crore. The project will be executed on a cost sharing basis, with JICA (Japan International Co-operation Agency) providing funds at an interest rate of 0.3% and 81% of the financing being done by Japan. The following paper discusses the projected returns on investment through Cost benefit analysis of the Bullet Train Project